The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

Australia had a native tiger now extinct they think,it is/was a marsupial dog really,I will show a photo of the last known surviving tiger taken in 1928?
They were hunted and killed after settlement because they were attacking domestic stock,sad,very sad really,here is a picture and story.There is a video which i will find and post for you.THis picture for now.

What is a Thylacine?

The Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus: dog-headed pouched-dog) is a large carnivorous marsupial now believed to be extinct. It was the only member of the family Thylacinidae to survive into modern times. It is also known as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf.
What did it look like?

The Thylacine was sandy yellowish-brown to grey in colour and had 15 to 20 distinct dark stripes across the back from shoulders to tail. Although the large head was dog- or wolf-like, the tail was stiff and the legs were relatively short. Body hair was dense, short and soft, to 15mm in length.

It had short ears (about 80 mm long) that were erect, rounded and covered with short fur. Jaws were large and powerful and there were 46 teeth. Adult male Thylacine were larger on average than females.

The female Thylacine had a back-opening pouch. The litter size was up to four and the young were dependent on the mother until at least half-grown. Interestingly, males also had a back-opening, partial pouch.
What did it eat?

The Thylacine was mainly nocturnal or semi-nocturnal but was also out during the day. The animal moved at a slow pace, generally stiff in its movements. The Thylacine hunted singly or in pairs and mainly at night.

Thylacines preferred kangaroos and other marsupials, small rodents and birds. They were reported to have preyed on sheep and poultry after European colonisation, although the extent of this was almost certainly exaggerated. For example, a famous photo is now known to have been staged using a taxidermied Thylacine specimen with a dead chicken placed in its mouth.
Where did it live?

At one time the Thylacine was widespread over continental Australia, extending north to New Guinea and south to Tasmania. In recent times it was confined to Tasmania where its presence has not been established conclusively for more than seventy years. In Tasmania the species was best known from the north and east coast and midland plains region rather than from the mountains of the south-west.
Why did it become extinct?

Although the precise reasons for extinction of the Thylacine from mainland Australia are not known it appears to have declined as a result of competition with the Dingo and perhaps hunting pressure from humans. The Thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland not less than 2000 years ago. Its decline and extinction in Tasmania was probably hastened by the introduction of dogs, but appears mainly due to direct human persecution as an alleged pest.
Indigenous Peoples and the Thylacine

Aboriginal rock-paintings of Thylacine-like animals are recognised from northern Australia including the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They have also been found on walls or overhangs on exposed rock surfaces in the Upper East Alligator region of Deaf Adder Creek and Cadell River crossing in the Northern Territory.

There is evidence to suggest that Aboriginal people in Tasmania used the Thylacine as a food item.
Is there a fossil Thylacine?

Fossil thylacines have been reported from Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.

Work at the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil site in north-west Queensland has unearthed a spectacular array of thylacines dating from about 30 million years ago to almost 12 million years ago. At least seven different species are present, ranging from small specialised cat-sized individuals to fox-sized predators.

The most spectacular find has been an almost complete skeleton of a thylacine from the AL90 site at Riversleigh. First glimpsed in 1996 when a limestone boulder was cracked to reveal part of the skull after 17 million years in a limestone tomb. After many months of intricate preparation the skeleton has been reassembled.

The fossil record of thylacines is a powerful reminder of how important it is to learn from the past the messages for the future. In Riversleigh times there were several species but by 8 million years ago only one species remained, the Powerful Thylacine, Thylacinus potens.

The modern Thylacine made its appearance about 4 million years ago.

A mummified carcass of a Thylacine has been found in a cave on the Nullabor Plain. It lived about 4 to 5,000 years ago, just before the Dingo was introduced into Australia.
- See more at: http://australianmuseum.net.au/The-T....aTBbJddU.dpuf


Billy

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

I know we knew no better then, but how sad to see a wild creature kept in such a confined space, very interesting though and will look at it some more when I come home. Thanks BS

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

That was a fascinating article, Bill. I've long been fascinated by the tragic story of this wonderful creature, but I thought its extinction was brought about almost entirely by us humans - the thylacine was believed to be taking livestock, so farmers put a bounty on its head and wiped the species out.
Have you been to Tazzy? I was fortunate enough to pay a short visit there two years ago - such a beautiful unspoilt part of the world. i suppose I'm romancing when I think perhaps the thylacine may be surviving somewhere in the interior.
Actually, I have a thylacine myself, it's on the sofa and only a few inches high! I remember seeing a stuffed one in the Natural History Museum, and being surprised at how small it was - their specimen was about the size of a small collie. How big would an adult male have grown?

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

Absolutely agree Hazel, it's so cruel. The old zoo's used to be like that, no space, greenery, toys, mental stimulation etc, but I think things have improved drastically nowadays.
Pity that poor creature isn't around to benefit.

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

Yes they are probably the size of a medium dog,they weighed between 15 kg to 35kg,and were between 1 metre to 1.3 metres in length.
they lived to about 7 years old and they say were a "very shy and fragile animal",they had a propensity to stress,that is what killed them in captivity,stress! sad eh.
People say they have spotted them in Tassie,but they have set cameras in common trail areas and found nothing.

Billy

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

A bit more for you-

On this day: Death of the last Tasmanian tiger


OF THE ALARMING NUMBER of native species that have disappeared since Europeans arrived in Australia, probably none has captured our imagination as much as the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. Long extinct on the mainland (probably due to competition from the introduced dingo), this unique animal, the largest carnivorous marsupial to exist in modern times, still thrived in the forests of Tasmania, until the colonists - with their sheep farms and firearms - arrived.

With its dog-like head, powerful jaws and striped body, the thylacine was soon labelled a marsupial 'wolf', 'tiger' or 'hyena', and increasingly demonised as a sheep-killer - although feral dogs and thieving humans were a much greater threat to the livestock industry. As the 19th century went on, hunting and trapping took a merciless toll on thylacines, especially after a bounty on their heads was introduced by the government in 1888. By the time the bounty was lifted in 1909, the species had been driven to the brink of extinction.

For decades beforehand, perceptive naturalists had warned that the thylacine's survival was in danger, and in the early 20th century, conservationists urged the Tasmanian Government to declare the thylacine a protected species. However, they were up against both powerful pastoralists still keen on making the thylacine a scapegoat, and the prejudices of then-current science, which saw thylacines and other marsupials as 'primitive' creatures that would inevitably die out under pressure from more 'highly evolved' introduced species.

In July 1936, thylacines were finally granted full protection. Two months later, on 7 September 1936, the last known thylacine died in Hobart Zoo.

The thylacine remains a potent symbol for conservationists, and today, the anniversary of the last thylacine's death, is National Threatened Species Day in Australia. As author David Owen writes, the tragic loss of the thylacine "glaringly symbolises wanton, careless destruction of the natural world" - a fitting reminder of what we have lost, and of the urgent need for action to prevent other species from suffering the same fate.


Billy

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

And this possible sighting?

Col Bailey is convinced the Tassie Tiger is alive.

COL Bailey claims he saw a thylacine in the flesh, writes JOHANNA LEGGATT

In the unlikely event you should chance upon a thylacine in the wilds of Tasmania, this is what you will notice: a strong pungent scent, a "yip yip" cry not unlike a Fox Terrier, and a strange awkward gait as it manoeuvres itself back into the forest and away from you, the startled human.

Shadow of the Thylacine, by Col Bailey, Five Mile Press, rrp $29.95

It may even bare its teeth to signal what you have already sensed: Tasmanian tigers are not comfortable around humans.

Which, according to thylacine enthusiast Col Bailey, is why there hasn't been any proof of their existence in the wild since the late 1930s.

Scientists have declared the species extinct - the last known Tasmanian tiger died in Hobart Zoo in 1936 - but 75-year-old Col believes they are still holding on by a thread.

Not a man to entertain foolish theories, his conviction is borne out by more than 40 years of research and that all-important clincher: a first-hand sighting of the carnivorous marsupial, which he writes about in his new book Shadow of the Thylacine.

In 1995, Col received crucial information from "Bert" - an old bushie who had spotted them in the wild in the 1950s - about where to find the remaining tigers. He was told to head to the inhospitable region of Snake River in Southern Tasmania's Weld Valley.

Col, who lives outside of Hobart in New Norfolk, and is an experienced bushwalker, thinks he may have seen a tiger while canoeing the Coorong Lagoon, in South Australia in 1967.

But he wasn't 100 per cent sure, and he headed into the dense Weld Valley to try his luck at the heart of "tiger territory".

After setting up camp, he heard their distinctive cry during the night, but it wasn't until the following morning after he had broken camp that he came face to face with one.

"I turned around and there it was, and at first I just thought it was a dog, but then I saw those distinctive stripes," he says.

"I went in to total shock and my whole body started shaking. Even if I had had the camera around my neck I doubt I would have had the presence of mind to take a photo."

He resolved at that point not to tell anyone about his encounter, for fear of hunters tracking them down.

"There remains a shoot-on-sight policy towards tigers in Tasmania among some people, simply because that is what their grandfather did," he says.

The encounter was a blissful reward for his many years of researching the thylacine and despite further searches, he never came across another one - and he doubts he ever will.

"I smelt them and I heard them again, but I never saw another one," he says.

Col hopes the publication of the book will go someway to encouraging authorities to pour some money in to finding a tiger pair and setting up a protected breeding program.

"I am not sure how many there are left in the remote parts of Tasmania, it could only be a handful," he says.

"But if we don't act on this soon, they will most certainly die out."

Asked to explain his love for the the thylacine, Col's voice softens.

"They are battlers and they are such prehistoric animals, there really isn't anything else quite like them," he says.

"To have survived what they survived, I have so much respect for them. What I would really love to do is see one in the wild, and be able to run up to it and hug it."


Billy

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

How sad we humans are, we encroach on their habitat and call them the pest. I hope they managed to survive and I didn't know the ding wasn't a native animal. You have some wonderful knowledge about your country.

Re: The Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger

Look at the other 2 new threads i started,this was an animal,what they did to humans was worse,these are our ancestors i am talking about too?

Yes the Dingo come from Asia i think,Australia was a part of the Asian Continent a long time ago,called it Gondwanaland!

Billy